An Elegant Death: A Short Story Read Free

football player like Zlatan when he gets sold to a team,’ Anna mocked. ‘And that’s a much more sensible way of spending the money.’
    ‘You can’t compare the two things,’ replied Patrik. ‘Zlatan is … er … Oh, it’s no use trying to explain to anyone who has no interest in sports, like the two of you.’
    ‘I’m on your side, Patrik. I’d much rather buy a piece of Zlatan than a Chanel jacket.’ Erica grinned.
    ‘In that case, I know which piece I’d buy,’ Anna said with a big smile.
    ‘Good Lord. You guys are hopeless. But thanks for your help, Anna. This gives us something to work with in the morning. Plus we’ve been given a warrant to search Lisbeth’s flat above the shop.’
    ‘And Lisbeth’s funeral is tomorrow,’ said Erica, picturing the sorrow she’d seen in Linnea’s eyes.
    Gusts of cold springtime wind swept across the Fjällbacka cemetery. The mourners who had gathered for the burial stood with their backs to the church, which loomed like a mighty granite tower over the small village. Not an especially large group of people, as Tina noted. And no wonder. Her mother had been an ordinary person who lived an ordinary life. The one redeeming feature had been her encyclopedic knowledge of fashion. That was the only point at which Tina’s world connected with her mother’s.
    And in the end it had also proved to be Tina’s lifeline. She knew that she would be forced to pay back all the money that she’d borrowed from the company. Half a million kronor – that was a lot of money. She had never intended to take such a large sum. At first she’d taken only small amounts. Enough to be able to buy herself a few nice things. A pair of black Louboutins. A blouse from Chloé. A Hermès scarf. Marvellous little things that had made life worth living. Then suddenly the sum had grown so large that she couldn’t possibly pay it back. So she had placed all her hopes on her mother. Lisbeth had inherited three million from their father, after all, and some of the money really belonged to Tina. Instead Lisbeth had used the funds to realize her ridiculous dream. She might as well have burned it in the woodstove. And then there was that jacket. When Lisbeth asked her daughter for help in having it appraised, Tina knew at once that this could be her ticket out of the financial straits in which she’d landed. Half a million kronor. It would have solved all her problems. She had begged and pleaded, but her mother stubbornly shook her head as she kept on repeating the same old lines. She told Tina that she needed to take responsibility for her own life, that she couldn’t depend on other people to solve her problems. The same crap that she’d always had to put up with. All of a sudden it was as if her brain short-circuited and rage took over. She’d picked up an iron and struck again and again until Lisbeth was no longer breathing.
    She realized it was only a matter of time before she was caught. The police were going to search her mother’s flat today. There they’d find traces from when she went upstairs to clean herself up afterwards and wash off all the blood. So she had a plan. She’d booked a plane ticket. As soon as she’d picked up the jacket she would drive straight to the airport. Then it would just be a matter of finding some way to sell it. Combined with the money she’d taken from her husband’s account, she would have a nice little sum to start a new life.
    Tina had to hold back a smile. People were so stupid, so weak. And her own family was the worst. Especially Linnea, standing there weeping as their mother’s coffin was lowered into the ground.
    ‘What did you choose for her to wear?’ Tina asked, in an effort to distract Linnea and stop her crying.
    ‘I didn’t take anything from the shop – I was afraid of choosing something too expensive,’ said Linnea, in between sobs. ‘But I had a pair of black trousers from H&M that I once borrowed from Mamma and didn’t have a